The developments in automation require the identification of products, of tools, and of operations such as manufacture, packaging, and storage. The very well-known barcode systems suffer from numerous drawbacks. Thus, the physical or chemical deterioration of the labels may be mentioned, as well as the printing or engraving of the barcode on the part to be identified, which is often impossible because of the quality and the color of the material. On the other hand, the visual analysis of the barcode does not allow the presence of liquids or of oil films on the barcode, which is very often the case in industrial environments.
The Radiofrequency Identification system (RFID) constitutes a new solution that offers numerous advantages. The transponder is a passive tag that captures the energy of the magnetic field emitted by the reader. The transponder is thereby enabled to communicate information contained in its memory to the reader. In certain cases, it is capable of modifying this information on demand of the reader. This new ability is an important advantage over the other identification systems.